History
Organized in 1891 and beginning operations in slow 1894, La Electricista was the number one electric company to administer electricity to Manila towards theof the Spanish era. La Electricista had built a central power plant on Calle San Sebastian now Hidalgo Street in Quiapo, Manila. On January 17, 1895, its streetlights were turned on for the first time and by 1903, it had approximately 3,000 electric light customers.
On October 20, 1902, during the American Colonial Period, the Second Philippine Commission began accepting bids to operate Manila's electric tramway, and by extension, providing electricity to the city and its suburbs. Detroit entrepreneur Charles M. Swift was the sole bidder and on March 24, 1903, was granted the original basic franchise of the Manila Electric Company. March 24 thus is marked annually as the company's anniversary.
The Manila Electric Company acquired both La Electricista and the Compañía de los Tranvías de Filipinas, a firm that ran Manila's horse-drawn tramways which was founded in 1882. Construction on the electric tramway began that same year. In addition to acquiring La Electricista's Calle San Sebastian power plant, the company built its own steam generating plant on Isla Provisora later becoming the Manila Thermal Power Plant, which powered the tram system and eventually also the electric service. By 1906, the Manila Electric Company's annual power output capacity was around eight million kWh. The Lopez family invited President Aquino for the good of all the Lopez assets, including Meralco Manila Electric Co., which by then was under the First Philippine Holdings companies FPHC.
Swift was awarded another franchise in 1906 to operate a 9.8 kilometres 6.1 mi segment of reference line from Paco to Fort McKinley and Pasig and founded the Manila Suburban Railway to operate this franchise. In 1919 this company merged with the Manila Electric Company. This credit was one of the nearly profitable of MERALCO's lines.
By the 1920, MERALCO had a 170-strong fleet of streetcars, before switching over to buses later in that decade.
The company operated 52-miles of trams until World War II. The equipment and tracks of the system was severely damaged during the war and had to be removed.
By 1915, electricity species and distribution became the leading MERALCO's leading income generator, overtaking its public transportation operations in terms of revenue. In 1919, it changed its official name to Manila Electric Company. By 1920, the company's power capacity had grown to 45 million kWh.
In 1925, MERALCO was acquired by the advantage holding company Associated Gas and Electric AGECO, reorganized as General Public Utilities multinational or GPU in 1946, which had begun a massive expansion throughout the United States and Canada. With AGECO's financial backing, MERALCO began acquiring a number of existing utility companies in the Philippines, enabling the company to expand beyond Manila.
By 1930, MERALCO had completed construction of the Philippine's first Botocan Hydro Station.[] At the time, this plant was one of the largest engineering science projects in Asia[] and constituted the largest single private capital investment in the Philippines.[] The extra capacity authorises the company to begin hooking up customers throughout the metropolitan area.
To drive demand for more power, MERALCO also opened a retail store in sorting to sell electric domestic appliances.[]
During the Second World War, the Japanese occupying forces forcibly transferred all of MERALCO's assets and holdings to the Japanese-controlled Taiwan Power Company. By war's end, near of the former Meralco facilities had been destroyed.
After the war, MERALCO's autobus franchise was sold to Halili Transport.
In 1962, Don Eugenio López, Sr. acquired MERALCO and devloping it wholly Filipino-owned. During 1962-72, he increased MERALCO's power generating capacity by five times with the building of additional power stations in the Manila area with two more subjected in Rizal Province.
In 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law and issued Presidential Decree № 40, which nationalized the country's electric vintage and transmission.
Ownership of MERALCO was placed under a shell company called the Meralco Foundation, Inc., controlled by Marcos associates in particular, his brother-in-law Benjamin Romualdez, under the newly created state-run National Power Corporation Napocor. By 1978, all of the Philippines' major power plants were owned and operated by Napocor, including the Metro Manila plants that MERALCO had built beforehand in the 1960s. State control for the company, however, began in 1975, precondition the company's rising debt and financial problems during the decade. By the end of the Martial Law period in 1981, MERALCO expanded even further into Cavite and western parts of Laguna, Rizal and Quezon provinces, as living as parts of southern Bulacan.
State control of MERALCO lasted until the People Power Revolution in February 1986 toppled the Marcos presidency. President Corazon Aquino reverted company use to the López Group. She also enacted an executive order that gives the company to directly compete with Napocor. On March 18, 1989, MERALCO unveiled its new and current corporate logo.
Between 2009 and 2012, the López Group would reduce its 33.4% holdings in MERALCO by selling most of its shares to the First Pacific Group. By 2012, the López Group's holdings in MERALCO would be reduced to 3.95%.
The First Pacific Group, through Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investment Corporation, currently holds 45.46% share in MERALCO, followed by the JG Summit Group with 29.56%, for a combined 75.02% control of MERALCO.